Memories Etched in Stone
by KaydenceRei
Summary: A case where a mother abuses her daughter reminds Olivia of all the things she thought she could have done to save the little girl. Oneshot, EO, songfic.


**Disclaimer**: I don't own the character of Olivia Benson or Elliot Stabler.

**A/N**: This song is actually very sad if you've ever listened to it and fully understand its lengths and meaning. I just think that it fits Olivia's past so well from the show, and since I feel as though I can relate to her feelings, I decided to write this. Someone did use the name of the song as their fics name, so I titled it differently. I do hope you like this story.

**Artist**: Martina McBride

**Song**: Concrete Angel

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Olivia sat quietly on her couch, staring at the unopened bottle of liquor on the coffee table in front of her. She felt like she needed it after the case where a mother was abusive and attempted to murder her own little girl. But her mind reeled with her own mother, and of her own past, and so she was quietly cursing herself for ever taking the bottle out to begin with and even thinking of drowning out this sorrow with a drink.

She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around her knee's as tears slowly drifted down her face. She should have been able to do something to stop that little girl from ever being hurt by her mother, from having been nearly killed. She was only a few feet away when it happened, and her eyes were staring directly into the child's.

She'd given her card to the little girl, telling her that if she ever needed anything that she could call, her home phone number was on the back. Sure enough, the child called her, crying and saying her mommy was mad. It hadn't taken Olivia long to call her partner as she rushed out of her own apartment more quickly then she'd ever had before.

_She walks to school with the lunch she packed  
Nobody knows what she's holdin' back  
Wearin' the same dress she wore yesterday  
She hides the bruises with linen and lace_

Why had no one ever done anything for this poor child before now? Olivia's mind reeled with the questions that she already knew the answers to. No one had helped this little girl because nobody had ever known about what was going on in that house. Things never changed with abused children, they made excuses for their parents, hoping that would help them to be forgiven when they had never even done anything wrong.

She bit her lip harder and harder, letting more tears run down her cheeks. She'd ran into the house, up to the child's room only in time to see her eyes, catch the simple look of terror in the little girl's eyes as her mother pulled the trigger of her gun. She hadn't moved, her own gun dropping from her hands as the girl's mother ran past her and out the door. She couldn't believe she had been only moments too late to save this child.. she'd let her die and she could have stopped it.

Her feet pulled her to the child's body, she knew it was pointless, a point-blank shot to the head.. nobody could survive. She soon knew she was wrong, the bullet had only grazed the child's head, and the girl's big blue eyes stared at Olivia in pain. Her arms closed around the girl's small frame, pulling her up into the air after holding her jacket to the girls forehead. She mumbled out a few comforting words to the child, hoping to calm her.

"It's okay sweetheart.. you're gonna be just fine.."

_The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask  
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask  
Bearing the burden of a secret storm  
Sometimes she wishes she was never born_

Olivia heard a knock on her door.. she didn't need to stop and think about who it might be. She already knew exactly who it was that would be standing there and wanting her to talk. She walked to the door, deciding to not bother for once to wipe away the tears that had fallen and stained her face.

She opened the door, smiling faintly and moving to the side without bothering to look at or say anything to the person standing at the door. "Elliot.." she addressed him quietly before moving back to the spot she had vacated on her couch. She felt him sit down beside her, but she didn't say anything else to him after that.

"Liv.. none of this was your fault, you saved Sophie," he told her. She sighed and shook her head at his words. She knew he was wrong, there was so much more she could have done for Sophie. She could have gotten there earlier, she could have moved more quickly and gotten there before the little girl got shot.

_Through the wind and the rain  
She stands hard as a stone  
In a world that she can't rise above  
But her dreams give her wings  
And she flies to a place where she's loved  
Concrete angel_

A frown produced it's form on her lips as she tried to hold it all in now that her partner was here speaking to her. She always wanted to be strong, not for anybody else but for herself. She wasn't strong as a child, she couldn't protect herself from the things her mother had done to her. She had to make up for all the weakness, she had to be stronger then everyone else, just so that they wouldn't see exactly how much these things got to her at times.

But when she felt Elliot's arms wrap around her shoulders, holding her close to him in an effort to comfort her, she visibly relaxed, closing her eyes and leaning into the embrace he'd given her. "It's okay to let it out Olivia.." he told her. She wasn't sure.. did she want to be so vulnerable again..?

It didn't take long before the tears escaped though, and she gripped her partner's shirt tight in her fists until her knuckles had grown white from the pressure. She was caught in the middle of all these things, somehow she could never escape the truth of her own miserable past.

_Somebody cries in the middle of the night  
The neighbors hear, but they turn out the lights  
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate  
When morning comes it'll be too late_

Olivia's body shook almost violently with her sobs from trying to hold them in. The fact that she wanted so badly to have been able to stop what had happened to that little girl earlier, and the fact that she knew exactly how Sophie felt, having never had anyone to help her for such a very long time.

Her mind reeled, telling her to throw everything aside. She didn't need to always feel this way, so why did she keep doing the job with the chance that she could get such a horrid reminder of her past? But she knew why she did it.. she did it because somebody had to do it. Somebody needed to save the Sophie's of the world, and she wanted to be the one who did so.

_Through the wind and the rain  
She stands hard as a stone  
In a world that she can't rise above  
But her dreams give her wings  
And she flies to a place where she's loved  
Concrete angel_

She felt her partner's hand run through her matted hair, in an attempt to soothe her. She wondered just how long she had been here with him, crying in his arms. She couldn't imagine why he would still even want to be here at this point, holding onto a broken woman.

Why was it that she was being remembered by her partner when no one else could remember Sophie? No one could remember seeing that child's bruises and pain for all 7 years of the little girl's life. She shouldn't have been remembered, Sophie should be the one being remembered. She shouldn't have had the comfort of her partner's strong arms holding her, telling her that everything would be okay with time.

Her mind always told her that she should have simply been forgotten, she shouldn't have even been here. Her mother had always told her one thing, that she was a mistake to this world, an accident. She should have never been born, she should have never been there for all of that pain, all of that clouded misery.

_A statue stands in a shaded place  
An angel girl with an upturned face  
A name is written on a polished rock  
A broken heart that the world forgot_

"I'm sorry El.." she mumbled out through her tears. She moved in an attempt to pull away from his hold, wanting nothing more then to drown out in that bottle on her coffee table. But his arms never let her out of their grasp, they never let go of her. She opened her brown eyes that slowly ended their tearful waterfall.

He was staring back at her, not understanding what it was that she could have been sorry for. "For what Liv.. sorry for what?" he'd asked her finally. She knew what she was sorry for.. she was sorry that she was here now, that she was taking time away from his life because he was trying to take care of her.

She took a short breath before telling him.. "I'm sorry that I'm here El.. that you're here.." she stated softly. Her voice wavered slightly in all of the emotions she was feeling, "I'm so sorry that you're wasting your time here with me.. you should go.." she told him next, closing her eyes.

Her partner seemed almost shocked at what she'd told him, "Olivia look at me.." he'd said and so she did. She opened her eyes to stare up into his blue ones, "Don't ever be sorry for any of that Liv.. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else then with you right now." He placed a chaste kiss on top of her lips, "I care about you Olivia, if you weren't here, I'm not sure what I would do."

Olivia's eyes brightened slightly at Elliot's words. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, as if she was afraid that if she let go, this would all be a dream, and he would be gone, leaving her with the bottle of liquid courage that she didn't want. A faint smile played upon her lips as she whispered a few small but meaningful words into his ears.. "I love you.."

_Through the wind and the rain  
She stands hard as a stone  
In a world that she can't rise above  
But her dreams give her wings  
And she flies to a place where she's loved  
Concrete angel_

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**Right.. so I just wanted to let out some steam. Sometimes we all need to do something like that right? My way just happens to be with fanfiction. So I hope that this story wasn't completely horrible, but I would love some thoughts on it. -Kay**


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